Many granular products, and some liquids have been shipped and stored in large bulk bags which may contain as much as a ton or more of material. Some of these bulk bags are flexible and when empty, can be folded to a generally flat condition. One such flexible bag is disclosed and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,596,040.
These bags are generally unsatisfactory for the shipment, stacking and storage of liquids and granular materials which readily flow. Some examples of such liquid materials are syrups, milk, fruit juices, apple sauce, purees, glues, inks, resins, paints, acids, chemicals and other compositions in liquid form, and granular materials such as beans, peas, grains, rice, salt, flour, sugar, dry chemicals, dry cement, minerals, chicken and animal feeds, fertilizers, etc. Since these materials readily flow, if they are stored in flexible bags stacked on top of each other, inlets and outlets of the bags usually leak, bags near the bottom of the pile may burst, and the stack would be so unstable it would readily roll, shift and fall over which would be hazardous and frequently results in spillage and loss of the contents of the bags.
Moreover, if bags filled with these readily flowable materials are transported or otherwise moved, the materials in the bags shift, surge or slosh around with sufficient force to cause the bags to be unstable, roll and even fall over frequently with sufficient force to damage or destroy the bags which results in the loss of their contents.